GK Eduwrap – 12th Feb 2016

Grab your daily scoop of Current Affairs, from National to International, Sports, Business and Economics. Learn wisely and Gain better with Eduncle’s GK Eduwrap!

National – Across the India:

1. “Wild Pig (sus scrofa)” has been declared as “Vermin” in Uttarakhand for a year, by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

MoEFCC used powers preserved to it by section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972.

Vermin means wild mammals and birds which are harmful to crops, farm animals or which carry disease.

The motive behind this decision is to carry out an extermination (hunting/poaching) of wild pigs outside the reserve forest on a large scale.

2. Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda has released the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 at New Delhi. The framework outlines India’s strategy for elimination of the disease by 2030.

International – Across the Globe:

1. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) appointed women ministers to the newly created portfolios for happiness and tolerance, and youth affairs.

Awards & Recognition:

1. Karnataka’s flagship mobile-one governance application has won gold medal at the fourth World Government Summit in Dubai, UAE in the m-governance awards category. Karnataka’s e-governance secretary Srivatsa Krishna received the award, on behalf of state government.

2. Four Indian-Americans Anil K Jain, Dr Arati Prabhakar, Ganesh Thakur and Dr K R Sridhar, elected to National Academy of Engineering of USA, for their outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education.

Appointments & Resignations:

1. Davinder Singh, Indian-origin lawyer, has been appointed as Vice-Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce Commission (ICC) on Corporate Responsibility and Anti-corruption.

ICC is Paris (France) based private sector world business organization with a central role in global trade and commerce.

Singh is one of top Indian-origin lawyer in Singapore.

At present he is performing his duties as the chief executive of the Singapore based law firm Drew & Napier.

He was member of Singapore Parliament from 1988-2006.

2. Indian-origin Harinder Sidhu has been appointed as Australian High Commissioner to India succeeding High Commissioner Patrick Suckling.

She was born in Singapore and later migrated to Australia. Her family hailed from Punjab.

She is second envoy from Australia after Peter Varghese who had ancestral roots to southern Indian state of Kerala.

MoU & Mergers:

1. India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed 9 bilateral agreements covering cooperation in the various sectors, during the second day of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi official visit to India. The agreements includes Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) in concern with: –

Technical Cooperation in Cyber Space and Combating Cyber Crime.

Participation institutional investors in Infrastructure Investments.

General Framework Agreement on Renewable Energy Cooperation.

The Exploration and use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes.

Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement.

Bilateral cooperation in Insurance sector.

Executive Programme for Cultural Cooperation (EPCC).

Letter of Intent for skill development and recognition of qualifications.

2. Wipro Limited, India’s third largest IT exporter, has acquired US based healthcare technology firm HealthPlan Services for US 460 million dollars.

HealthPlan Services is a leading independent technology and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) provider in the US health insurance market that offers solutions to health insurance firms.

This is Wipro’s overall 4th acquisition in the year 2015. Earlier it had bought Denmark-based Designit, German IT consulting firm Cellent AG and US-based Viteos Group.

It was part of the Wipro’s traditional “string of pearls” acquisition strategy.

It shall help company to strengthen its position in the US health insurance market.

Science & Technology:

1. Three IT (Information Technology) enabled apps has been launched by the Union Ministry of Railways, to bring transparency in Indian Railways following the path of Digital India initiative.

These app projects were launched by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu at through Video-Conferencing from Rail Bhawan at a function held in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

The three IT apps are “Hand Held Terminals for TTEs”, “Paperless unreserved ticketing mobile application”, “E-booking of disposable linen on trains”.

Death:

1. Leslie Bassett, a Pulitzer winning composer, passed away on 4 February 2016 in Oakwood, Georgia. He was 93.

As born in Hanford, California on January 22, 1923.

He was known for his lush sonorities and ecumenical instrumentation and for compositions of coaxing a vast range of tonal colours from the bits of wood and brass.

2. Anatoli Ilyin, the Soviet football legend, passed away. He was the scorer of the first ever UEFA European Championship qualifying goal and the strike that earned the Soviet Union Olympic gold in 1956.